adventures with ruth reichl, my personal lord and savior

photo from booksamillion.com

i've been trying to cook my way through ruth reichl's memoirs. though i am more fond of her earlier works that document her gloriously capricious youth, i've been paying particular interest to garlic & sapphires in the interest of writing a paper for my silly little sociology class.

the recipes in her books are straightforward and less time consuming than most of the recipes i've come across in her magazine (yes, her magazine). in an earlier post, i put up a photo of fairly successful gougères:



having never had gougères at a restaurant proper, i have no idea what to expect. still, i was quite happy with my own version of them. i cut the little cubes of gruyère a little too large and the dough fell away from the cheese, creating large pockets of air inside. as a result, they were a little crisper round the edges rather than soft, foofy puffs.

i have to say, the smell of the baking gruyère really stank up my kitchen. surprisingly, this funk was not at all present in the gougères themselves. all in all, pretty tasty, if not slightly on the salty side (prob due to the brand of cheese used). the security guard in my building really liked them. i've been bringing him food every now and then and he lets me into the building without having to swipe my columbia card.

moving beyond gougères...

one sunny monday so long ago (seriously, new york weather has been simply tragic of late), i cooked myself a little ruth reichl dinner of crab cakes and primavera risotto.

i think i used the wrong kind of crab cuz my crab cakes came out more starchy than meaty. last time i was at zabar's, i bought a couple cans of roland white crab meat, but the stuff inside was just tiny little shreds of crabmeat sitting in crab juice. i don't know where reichl expects anyone to buy canned lump crabmeat. maybe that super gourmet cat food maker supplies that sort of thing.

vs.
images from the internets

other than that, the recipe was really simple, adding bulk to the crabmeat with bits of torn white bread and spiced mostly with paprika. i used panko (japanese bread crumbs) instead of regular breadcrumbs cuz i like crunchy bits and also cuz i have a ton of panko left (i should really deep fry more often).



they came out quite tasty. as did the risotto, which was lovingly, lovingly stirred for a full 40 minutes. i tried to tie together the flavors/not waste available resources by using the leftover/squeezed out crab juice (nearly a full cup's worth) to the risotto. i could barely taste the crab broth in the risotto, but this was due to the fact that salty, MSG-powered bouillon cubes kill all other flavors. man, i really gotta learn to how to make stock.



since the recipe had a fairly high yield, and since i was cooking for one, there was the problem of leftovers. for the entire week, i ate asparagus-dotted risotto and suffered through that asparagus-induced funny-smelling pee phenomenon.

risotto doesn't reheat well (rather, i don't know how to do it), so i shaped the cold, sticky risotto into little cakes and cooked them in a pan. this was somewhat time consuming since i couldn't get the cakes to crisp up. even when i tried using extra oil, the rice just wasn't dry enough to form a substantial crust. still, lightly frying the cakes gave it an earthy, caramelized aroma while keeping the risotto rice tender:



i felt kind of bad serving these to my friday night potluck people, because i was trying to get rid of the risotto by that point. they liked them alright, but i was a little sheepish to serve it seeing as i took no joy in eating it myself.

i also considered making balls of risotto and then deep-frying them, but i've been getting fluffy round the middle and thus, am avoiding fatty starchy things (though i love them so).

i quickly broke this rule just days later at the ghetto mart (c-town) and noticed that cream cheese was on sale. i bought 2 packages, remembering there was a recipe for new york style cheesecake in reichl's book.

her cheesecake, modified from a recipe for lindy's famous cheesecake, is just a little unusual and not too heavy (though the ingredient list would have you think otherwise).

the crust consisted of fine graham cracker crumbs and an entire stick of butter, melted. i tossed in about a 1/3 cup of chopped toasted pecans to the mix, thinking the nuts would add texture and richness to the crust. while this seemed like a good idea at the time, i would not recommend making a nutty crust for cheesecake. for fruit crisps and pies, yes, but not for something so delicate in flavor like cheesecake.

the cheesecake portion required all of 3 packages (1.5 pounds) of cream cheese. i only had the two on hand and thought that 3 would be overdoing it, so i just went with what i had. someday, i'll have to make this recipe again at full cream cheese power, though 2 packages turned out a fine cheesecake of respectable density.

the best part of reichl's cheesecake was the layer of sweetened sour cream that formed the last layer of the cake. 16 oz of sour cream with tbsp of sugar, poured on top and baked until set. having never seen a cheesecake paired with sour cream, i was a little skeptical, but the mild sourness really bolstered the flavor of the lemon zest and the silky texture was a nice, moist contrast to the drier cakey layer.



the recipe says that the cheesecake should be chilled at least 8 hours. i've found that the cheesecake needs a full day of sitting in the fridge to really develop its flavors. at the very least, time mellowed out the toasted pecans in the crust so they weren't overwhelming.

cheesecake is not at the top of my list for favorite sweets, but i was proud to serve this rather impressive (if not delightfully lemony) version of the new york classic.